One-Step Synthesis of Sulfur-Doped Nanoporous Carbons from Lignin with Ultra-High Surface Area, Sulfur Content and CO Adsorption Capacity.

Lignin is the second-most available biopolymer in nature. In this work, lignin was employed as the carbon precursor for the one-step synthesis of sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons. Sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons have several applications in scientific and technological sectors. In order to synthesize sulfur-doped nanoporous carbons from lignin, sodium thiosulfate was employed as a sulfurizing agent and potassium hydroxide as the activating agent to create porosity. The resultant carbons were characterized by pore textural properties, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nanoporous carbons possess BET surface areas of 741-3626 m/g and a total pore volume of 0.5-1.74 cm/g. The BET surface area of the carbon was one of the highest that was reported for any carbon-based materials. The sulfur contents of the carbons are 1-12.6 at.%, and the key functionalities include S=C, S-C=O, and SO. The adsorption isotherms of three gases, CO, CH, and N, were measured at 298 K, with pressure up to 1 bar. In all the carbons, the adsorbed amount was highest for CO, followed by CH and N. The equilibrium uptake capacity for CO was as high as ~11 mmol/g at 298 K and 760 torr, which is likely the highest among all the porous carbon-based materials reported so far. Ideally adsorbed solution theory (IAST) was employed to calculate the selectivity for CO/N, CO/CH, and CH/N, and some of the carbons reported a very high selectivity value. The overall results suggest that these carbons can potentially be used for gas separation purposes.